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Where is bg on the xkcd chart?

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 7:22 p.m.

In Response To: Where is bg on the xkcd chart? (Casper van der Tak)

Casper wrote:

I think in any normal length match, XGR would outplay the very best human players. I am not sure that that is the case for the best chess program against the best chess player in the world. (In a way, this is also not a fair comparison, because the BG software is not run a supercomputers, and I think the chess programs were).

I think your information about chess programs is out of date. At the time of Kasparov versus Deep Blue, it wasn't clear whether Deep Blue's victory was a fluke of some sort. Today, things have changed. There aren't any man-versus-machine contests in chess any more, because the outcome is a foregone conclusion. The human would not be able to beat the computer. Nor does the program even have to run on super-duper hardware. There would probably be some draws, but eventually the human would slip up and lose some games. For any human to win even a single game against one of the top programs on even terms under normal time controls would be a minor miracle.

Here's another angle on the matter. The interesting question in computer chess is no longer whether the programs can beat the top humans, but whether they can beat the top humans while giving the humans odds of a pawn and a move. In 2008, Rybka gave GM Dzindzichashvili odds of a pawn and a move and won a four-game match with a score of 2.5 to 1.5. Dzindzi isn't one of the top GM's but he is known for his unusual skill against computer programs. Still, it is expected that the best humans should win a match against the current top programs if given odds of a pawn and a move.

Messages In This Thread

• Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
  ah_clem -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 2:46 p.m.
  • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
    Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 3:10 p.m.
    • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
      Casper van der Tak -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 3:25 p.m.
      • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
        Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 4:07 p.m.
        • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
          Casper van der Tak -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 4:55 p.m.
          • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
            Steve Mellen -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 5:27 p.m.
            • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
              Casper van der Tak -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 6:56 p.m.
          • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
            Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 7:22 p.m.
            • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
              Casper van der Tak -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 8:05 p.m.
            • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
              Daniel Murphy -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 8:14 p.m.
        • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
          Daniel Murphy -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 5:04 p.m.
          • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
            misja -- Thursday, 12 January 2012, at 3:42 p.m.
            • Where is bg on the xkcd chart?
              Daniel Murphy -- Thursday, 12 January 2012, at 5:15 p.m.
  • Beer pong?
    KenB -- Wednesday, 11 January 2012, at 5:52 p.m.
    • Beer pong?
      garyo -- Thursday, 12 January 2012, at 4:54 a.m.
  • I miss Skat and Tarock on this chart. *NM*
    higonefive -- Thursday, 12 January 2012, at 8:04 a.m.